Alexa is the helpful voice in the Echo and Echo Dot that comes with a wide range of skills already available. But with a little coding, it can be made to do much more. IDG's Sharon Machlis explains.

Amazon’s Alexa device has proven to be quite popular with many home users, and some already consider it to be a better voice assistant than Apple’s Siri. Now there is an app that will let you use Amazon’s Alexa on your iOS device or Mac.

iOS: Get the free Reverb app for Amazon’s Alexa

Reverb for iOS is a free app that lets you use Alexa anywhere. Here’s the official description from the iOS App Store:

Reverb allows you to interact with Alexa from anywhere. Via Alexa, Reverb answers questions, reports traffic and weather, gives info on local businesses, provides sports scores and schedules, and more using the Alexa Voice Service.

Reverb now uses Alexa v2, which adds support for timers, alarms, long form audio, audiobooks, and more.

It can also interact with smart devices that are compatible with Alexa, such as lights, switches, and thermostats compatible Samsung SmartThings, WeMo, Philips Hue, and others.

Alexa is always learning new features, plus thousands of skills like 1-800-flowers, Animal Sounds, and more

Reverb does not support music due to Alexa doesn't allow use of Amazon Music in apps. Only hardware implementations are allowed to play Amazon Music.